Faculty & Staff
Professor and Patsy Link Chair in Mare Reproductive
Studies
Dr. Katrin Hinrichs graduated from the University of California,
Davis School of Veterinary Medicine with her DVM in 1978. After
private practice, she spent six years at the University of
Pennsylvania, New Bolton Center completing a residency and PhD. She
began her research on hormonal requirements for pregnancy and
embryo transfer in the mare. She spent the next 10 years at Tufts
University School of Veterinary Medicine teaching and conducting
research on oocyte maturation and fertilization in the horse.
Hinrichs joined the faculty at the Texas A&M College of
Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences in 1998 and she is
jointly appointed in Veterinary Physiology and Pharmacology and
Large Animal Clinical Sciences.
She is best known to the horse-owning world for her unique
contributions to cloning. She and her group cloned the first horse
in North America, and the third in the world. Their continued
efforts have resulted in one of the highest reported success rates
with regard to producing live offspring following nuclear transfer
in any species. Equal to this and perhaps of great importance to
the horse industry, are her many unique and applicable developments
in what is referred to as "assisted reproduction." These have
included: developing techniques to improve in vitro fertilization;
helping to define and understand equine embryo development;
development of improved techniques to preserve (maintain viability)
of oocytes from injured or dying horses, so they may be transported
to a specialty referral center for fertilization; heightened
understanding of the variables affecting oocyte maturation;
development of a technique to biopsy horse embryos to determine the
presence or absence of genetically related diseases while
preserving the viability of the developing embryo; and techniques
for improving success of embryo cryopreservation in horses. Her
contributions have been widely employed throughout the world to aid
in retention of valuable breeding horses.
Research Scientist
Dr. Beatriz Macías García received her DVM from the University
of Extremadura in Cáceres, Spain, in 2006. After working as a
veterinary intern at the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, she
returned to the Department of Reproduction of the University of
Extremadura to work on her PhD, under a grant from the Spanish
Ministry of Education and Science. Dr. Macias defended her PhD in
2011; her work focused on the effect of osmotic shock on stallion
spermatozoa. Now, as a member of the Equine Embryo Laboratory team,
Dr. Macías is studying physiological aspects of capacitation and
hyperactivation in stallion sperm. In addition to her stallion
research, Dr. Macías works on research in assisted reproductive
techniques performed at the lab, such as transvaginal follicle
aspirations, flank aspirations of preovulatory follicles and oocyte
maturation. Dr. Macías future plans are to continue her research
into other areas of assisted reproduction, including IVF (in vitro
fertilization) and oocyte vitrification, in the horse.
Research Scientist
Dr. Lauro Gonzalez received his degree in Biochemistry from the
University of Extremadura in Caceres, Spain, in 2003. After a
predoctoral fellowship in the Alberto Sols Institute for Biomedical
Investigation in Madrid, he returned to the Physiology Department
at Extremadura and completed his PhD in 2009. Dr. Gonzalez's
doctoral research was focused on the role of protein tyrosine
phosphatases in motility and capacitation in porcine and equine
sperm. At the Equine Embryo Laboratory, Dr. Gonzalez
continues his research on equine sperm, as a postdoctoral fellow
funded by a grant for Postdoctoral Specialization from the Junta of
Extremadura. He is studying the pathways involved in equine
hyperactivated sperm motility, specifically working on the role of
protein kinase A and calmodulin kinase II (CaMKII).
Additionally, Dr. Gonzalez is studying the physiological role of
calcium and pH in the capacitation process in stallion
spermatozoa.
Research Scientist
Dr. Young Ho Choi received his DVM from Seoul National
University in South Korea in 1989 and he received his PhD from Gifu
University in Japan in 1997. He completed his postdoctoral
fellowship at the Obihiro University Agriculture and Veterinary
Medicine in Japan and at Colorado State University in Colorado.
Since 2000, he has been working at the Texas A&M College of
Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences and he currently
holds the title of research scientist.
Since 1990 Choi has had experience with in vitro fertilization
in several species, such as: mice, pigs, cows and horses. His main
research areas are assisted reproductive techniques, more
specifically; intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) and cloning
in the horse. He has published 32 papers with Hinrichs in the past
decade, with the majority of them covering ICSI and cloning in the
horse.
Research Assistant
Dr. Isabel Catalina Velez received her DVM from the Veterinary
Medicine CES University in Medellin, Columbia in 2005. She received
her MS in physiology of reproduction at Texas A&M University in
2009, focusing on the regulation of seasonality in the mare.
In the Equine Embryo Laboratory Velez is involved in developing
and improving mare reproductive techniques, such as; transvaginal
follicle aspiration (TVA), flank aspiration of stimulated
preovulatory follicles, oocyte maturation and manipulation, oocyte
transfer, and embryo transfer and embryo and oocyte vitrification.
As she continues her research in the coming years, her goal is to
acquire the knowledge to become Board-Certified in the American
College of Theriogenologists.
Research Assistant
Linda Love received her BS in 1980 and her MS in 1984 from the
University of Missouri-Columbia. Love studied equine reproduction
with an emphasis on equine embryo transfer. She was one of the
first to develop the procedure with a horse at the University of
Missouri, which was just beginning to emerge as an everyday
assisted reproductive tool that decade. After working with embryo
transfer in equine and bovine at the University of Pennsylvania -
New Bolton Center and with human infertility in Newark, Delaware
she came to the Texas A&M Equine Embryo Laboratory in 1999.
Since the beginning of the lab she has been working on oocyte
recovery techniques, ovary and oocyte temperature regulation,
shipping temperatures, regulations, packaging vessels, medias, and
developing research equipment and techniques with students,
visiting professionals, residents, and graduate students.
Shavahn Loux received her undergraduate degree and her MS in
animal science from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo. She is currently
working towards her PhD in biomedical sciences from the Texas
A&M College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences,
focusing on factors affecting hyperactivated motility in equine
spermatozoa, specifically calcium kinetics during hyperactivation,
and its relationship to the ability of the sperm to fertilize
oocytes in vitro.
Technician
Ms. Sheila Spacek is a 2009 graduate of Texas A&M University
with a Bachelor of Science in Kinesiology. During her time at
Texas A&M, Ms. Spacek completed an internship at Granada Farms
under the guidance of Dr. Mark Nevill, which inspired her career
path in equine reproduction. As the technician at the Equine
Embryo Laboratory, she is involved with research as well as
clinical transvaginal follicle aspiration procedures, oocyte
recovery from isolated ovaries, oocyte maturation, and tissue cell
culture. Ms. Spacek also serves the laboratory as the liaison
and coordinator for clinical ICSI, post-mortem ICSI, embryo
vitrification, and genetic biopsy clinical programs. In the future,
she wishes to pursue her DVM and become Board-Certified in the
American College of Theriogenologists.